Jim Galton (b.1925) died on June 12. Galton served as President of Marvel Entertainment Group. Galton worked for Popular Library in the 1960s and briefly served as the publishing house’s President. from 1975 to 1991, he worked at Marvel, where he moved international licensing in-house and helped set up the Marvel Productions and Marvel Books divisions.

Marvel has settled a long-running rights battle with the heirs of Jack Kirby. Kirby worked with Stan Lee in the 1960s to develop many of the iconic characters of the Marvel universe, including Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, the Fantastic Four, and others. Over the years Kirby’s heirs and Marvel have each sued each other over the creator credit and the Supreme Court was considering whether they should take up the case when the settlement was reached for an undisclosed amount and for undisclosed terms.

Illustrator Al Williamson (b.1931) died on June 13. Williamson began working on the Tarzan with his mentor, Burne Hogarth, in 1948. By 1952, he was working for EC Comics on Weird Science and Weird Fantasy, often collaborating with Frank Frazetta. In the mid-80s, Williamson worked on comic adaptations of many sf films, including Bladerunner and The Empire Strikes Back. He remained active into the 2000s.

Disney has announced that it has agreed to purchase Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion, pending shareholder approval of the deal. If Marvel shareholders approve the deal, they will receive $30 in cash and .745 shares of Disney stock for each share of Marvel they currently hold.